The Problem of Black Filtration Lines

What are Black Filtration Lines?

Have you recently noticed dark, grayish lines appearing in your carpets where they meet with your baseboards, walls, staircases, heating vents, or cold air returns? If so, keep in mind that this isn’t due to a defect in your carpet, but to the accumulation of dust, smog, and other pollutants in its fibers over time. These are known as “filtration lines” or “black edge lines” and they can certainly be unsightly. But what causes them in the first place?

The Cause of Black Filtration Lines

You may not notice it, but even without heating or cooling, air is constantly circulating throughout your home, which contains small amounts of dust, oils, and other suspended particles. In areas such as baseboards and under doors, as the circulating air flows underneath, your carpet will filter out this airborne debris. And as this debris accumulates, these black filtration lines will become increasingly apparent.

If you’ve attempted to clean these areas in the past, you know how difficult they can be to remove. This is because the dirt consists of tiny particles (primarily soot) that adhere tightly to your carpet’s fibers, and is typically out of reach of most vacuums.

How Can Black Filtration Lines be Cleaned?

While no single cleaning technique will be effective for removing all black filtration lines from your carpets, ComfoClean implements innovative soil and stain removal treatments that have been shown to reduce the time and effort involved. While complete removal depends heavily on the areas that are soiled and the contaminants they’re soiled with, we’ve developed a process that successfully removes 95% of filtration lines in six steps:

Vacuum all dry particles from your carpet.

Pre-treat carpet with a solvent remover solution, which begins breaking down the soot and carbon-based particles inside.

Rake carpet edges, which agitates the solution deep into the fibers.

Saturate edges with a 270-degree cleaning solution.

Steam carpet and extract soot/carbon particles.

Repeat if necessary.

Extremely heavy filtration lines may require 2-3 treatments in order to be sufficiently addressed, and while they may not be removed completely, their appearance will be significantly improved. As such, it’s important to keep in mind that this is a very time consuming process. In fact, cleaning black filtration lines can take as much time as cleaning all the carpets in your home, and requires specialized equipment and very expensive chemicals. Because of these factors, very few carpet cleaning companies in Bellevue offer this service.

In addition, because of the concentrated nature of black filtration lines, it’s likely that they will reappear in the same areas over time. However, cleaning your air ducts and caulking gaps between your floors and walls will help slow their reappearance. It’s also important to keep the air inside your home as clean as possible, which can be accomplished by reducing indoor pollutants such as cigarette smoke and cleaning chemicals, by installing and regularly replacing high-efficiency HVAC air filters, and by using high-efficiency vacuum cleaner bags.

How Much Does Filtration Line Cleaning Cost?

ComfoClean offers Black Filtration Line cleaning for $2-$5 per foot (minimum $190 is required for this service).